Trent Bridge

Adams Reflects On500 First Class Wickets

Featured News | 11th May 2011

Andre Adams picked up the 500th first class wicket of his career when he bowled Sussex’s Monty Panesar at Hove on Tuesday.

Earlier in the day, via the help of a splendid catch from ‘keeper Chris Read, he dismissed Murray Goodwin to pick up his 499th but it was the scalp of the left-handed Panesar that completed a 13-year journey to reach 500.

“I’m obviously delighted to finally get there”, he said. “It wasn’t a great day for me personally but the boys did well and then I got the chance to bowl at Monty late on. He punched me away nicely for four through the covers to start with, so I thought I’d just try and sneak one past him and he helped me out by chopping it on.

"Adams’ haul of 500 comprises: 6 for New Zealand, 237 for Auckland, 80 for Essex and now 177 for Nottinghamshire."

“I’d tried not to think about getting to 500 – I just wanted to stay calm and do my job and now I’ll just be looking to bowl better and keep taking plenty more wickets this season.”

As well as representing Notts, Andre has played first class cricket for Auckland and Essex, as well as one Test Match appearance for New Zealand, against England in 2002.

His debut was for Auckland, in match that began on 10 March 1998 at the Eden Park Outer Oval. Playing against Otago, Andre’s first brief involvement was a 3-ball duck but when his turn came to bowl he soon struck.

Significantly, Andre’s first wicket was a left-hander - Mark Robinson, the former Kiwi Test player, who was caught behind by wicket-keeper Brendan Lyon. Despite the early success it was a tough baptism, as another seasoned international, Matthew Horne, scored 241 to propel Otago to an innings victory. Andre had some fun with the bat though, in the second innings – hitting 5 x 4s and 5 x 6s in a 37 minute knock of 58, from just 26 balls faced.

‘Dre’s first overseas challenge came when he joined Essex in 2004 and he introduced himself in the most emphatic manner possible. Playing against Leicestershire at Grace Road in a County Championship match he scored 124 (91 balls 125 mins 13 x 4s 7 x 6s). His first victim in this country, in the same match, was Darren Robinson, who was trapped lbw.

His Nottinghamshire debut wasn’t quite as spectacular. On 22 August 2007 at Trent Bridge he first appeared for his present county, against Northants – but went wicketless in the first innings and was upstaged by debutant Mark Davies, on loan from Durham, who took 7-59. In the second innings he took his first wicket for the county, getting Rob White, caught at slip by Stephen Fleming.

Andre’s one Test appearance came on his own Auckland ground, against England in 2002. His six victims in that match were, Michael Vaughan, Andrew Flintoff and Matthew Hoggard in the first innings and Nasser Hussain, James Foster and Hoggard again in the second.

The Yorkshire match this week was his 123rd at first class level and he has taken 5 wickets in an innings on 21 occasions, with a best of 6-25. He has three times picked up 10 wickets in a match – the recent match against Hampshire was the first time he had done it in the UK and he went on to claim a career-best of 11-85.

Since his debut in 1998 Andre has also collected a further 305 wickets, in ODIs, T20 internationals, List A matches and 20/20 contest but he now joins the following select band of current county players who can now boast 500 first class victims. Azhar Mahmood, Glenn Chapple, Dominic Cork, Robert Croft, Andrew Hall, Steve Harmison, Claude Henderson, Matthew Hoggard, Imran Tahir, Murali Kartik, Gary Keedy, Jonathan Lewis, Naved-ul-Hasan, Charl Willoughby, Yasar Arafat, as well as our own Graeme Swann. Paul Franks is also nearing the landmark, with a current total of 488 scalps to his name.

Adams’ haul of 500 comprises: 6 for New Zealand, 237 for Auckland, 80 for Essex and now 177 for Nottinghamshire – of which 94 have been at Trent Bridge.